Middle East Eye- 13 March 20 18- US President Donald Trump cited his disagreements with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the Iranian nuclear deal, as he explained his decision to replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo.

'We've been talking about this for a long time,' he said. 'We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things.'

'When you look at the Iran deal, I thought it was terrible, he thought it was okay. I wanted to either break it or do something, he felt a little differently. So we were not really thinking the same.'

Conversely, he said that he and Pompeo had 'a similar thought process' on the issue.

Analysts are now concerned that the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has long branded the 'worst deal ever' could finally be scrapped. While Tillerson was a critic of the deal, he had previously stated the need for a 'review' of the deal rather than a full ripping up as Trump wanted.